[Brady would] fill much of the existing $80-billion hole in the state’s pension plans by borrowing. The borrowing would be repaid by allotting much of the natural growth in state revenues to pension debt service, he says.

“It’s important for voters to ask: Is this someone who doesn’t comprehend his own budget proposal? Or is it that Sen. Brady simply cannot recall his numerous statements about the budget over the past five months?”

Brady’s lack of comprehension appears to apply to almost all of his major budget plans: Borrowing, pension borrowing and across the board cuts. Sheesh.

* Speaking of yesterday’s kerfuffle, my intern Dan Weber broke the story yesterday that Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady was contradicting himself on his previous support for a ten percent across the board state budget cut. Brady claimed during a media availability last week that he never supported an across the board cut and Dan pounced while other reporters let it go. He pressed Brady to admit that he had, in fact, supported an across the board budget cut. Brady challenged Dan to “find it on tape” and Dan did. He also found other quotes of Brady in news articles claiming that the GOP candidate did, indeed, support an across the board cut.

Well, Carol Marin led off her segment last night with Dan’s story, which she unfortunately attributed to me…

Bill Brady is taking issue with a politician’s comments on how to solve the state’s budget crisis. Problem is, that politician is himself.

Brady, the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, bristled last week when a reporter asked about his proposal for a 10 percent, across-the-board cut in state spending.

“I’ve never said ‘across the board.’ I’ve never said ‘across the board.’ You find it on tape,” the Bloomington state senator said.

In fact, Brady has called for “across the board” cuts on multiple occasions.

The AP is the media giant most upset with little ol’ bloggers rewriting their stories without attribution, yet here they do exactly the same thing as those hated Huffington Post aggregators, but don’t even provide a link. That’s outright theft in my book.

Republican governor candidate Bill Brady sought today to tamp down a flap over his plans for the state’s deficit-plagued budget after previously calling for 10 percent across-the-board cuts, then denying it.

“It’s how the question is framed. And I will admit it’s a matter of semantics,” Brady, a veteran state senator from Bloomington, said during an interview on WTTW-Ch. 11’s “Chicago Tonight.” “But what I simply say is that I have to reduce spending by 10 percent. No area of state government shall be (protected) from reduced spending. Pretty much it is every area.”

And the Sun-Times, which is usually good about crediting (mainly because they get to plug me as a Sun-Times columnist), said it all came from the governor’s campaign…

Quinn’s campaign wasted little time Monday digging up news clippings and a Jan. 13, 2010 video posted on Youtube.com in which Brady did just that.

The big boys really need to grow up and stop pretending that alternative media doesn’t exist and, therefore, is not deserving of any credit. I’ve dealt with this for 20 years, and now Dan is getting a little taste of it. I don’t think he’s enjoying it. Enough, already.

BRADY: I call for elimination of the State Board of Education: $80 million a year spent. … Now, I’d create a downsized department, so that we provide the necessary –

MARIN: So it wouldn’t be a total $80 million.

BRADY: No, but let’s say half — $40 million.

“Half” is not “eliminate.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** Zorn posts the entire transcript of the Chicago Tonight interview and notes how Brady twice tried to excuse his denials over ever saying he was for an across the board budget cut. Zorn’s conclusion…

Either Brady doesn’t know what “semantics” means or he’s a liar

Ouch.

* Related…

* Edgar isn’t sold on Quinn, Brady plans: Speaking of the Democratic and Republican candidates for the office he once held, former Gov. Jim Edgar said “both are right and both are wrong.” … “We are going to have to raise taxes,” Edgar said Monday night in a question-and-answer session at the McLean County Museum of History. “We have to do the cuts first and then increase taxes.” Edgar said the cuts will need to be “brutal.” “Everyone in this room is going to be mad if they are done right. It’s going to have to affect everyone.”

Great work, Dan Weber. In a world of lazy reporters who dont think and ask questions, you are showing what reporting is supposed to be all about. Keep digging and seeking answers, and you will be a leader in this pathetic and lazy field.

Nice job Rich and Dan. Too bad the established (sorta, but clinging on)news media fears to admit they missed this newsworthy story.

Brady is starting to gain his confidence and is presenting himself much better. He just needs to keep an eye on his feet and keep them away from his mouth.

As to Edgar and Thompson….I give neither any credence as it is their apparent goal is to sabotage Brady. They couldn’t do the job of getting Edgar re-elected so I do not heed their advice or even want it. MSI keeps coming to mind when Edgar starts talking. I simply do not trust his integrity.

Republican nihilism. Just when, in desperation, I’m toying with the idea of at least considering Republicans for general assembly races, they go and do this. Not. Fit. To. Govern.

A dishonorable mention to the 11 Democrats who joined Brady and the Republicans and enabled this disaster.

Between Brady, the assembly Republicans, and the Democrat rebels, I’ll never forget you as we pay off the billions this act of nihilism will cost the taxpayers of this state over the next generation. Given a choice between several hundred million in interest, and more than $30 billion in shortfalls, you’ve chosen to put the taxpayers on the hook for the $30 billion.

As I say, Not. Fit. To. Govern.

You’ve got a couple of weeks here. Are you going to come back and redeem yourselves before the deadline?

Nice work, Dan. Not only did you scoop the Majors you gave reporters who actually get paid a lesson in how they should be doing their jobs. Too many of them just read CapFax and phone it in on the way to the next party.

- Brady is starting to gain his confidence and is presenting himself much better. -

I agree, he’s moving on from making faux pas regarding heartstrings issues like gassing puppies to faux pas regarding governance issues like how budgets work. If he keeps working at it and building his confidence I have no doubt he will destroy his credibility with lots of time to spare.

Also, great job Dan. I’m constantly impressed by this current batch of interns, keep it up.

Quinn wants the taxes before the cuts–the trust me approach. He also wants to protect union employees, Blagojevich appointees, his own political appointees, contractor pals of Democratic politicians, and the usual Illinois political knaves and fools from any cuts at all. He wants to give these groups more taxpayer moolah.

Brady wants the cuts before the taxes, which he says won’t be necessary if cuts are sufficient.
However, he can’t explain those cuts clearly so we can’t remotely tell if it’s plausible.

Looks to me like a Hobson’s choice this fall, with the choice being incompetence.

Good work Dan. The “establishment” should be embarassed at leaving the correct credit out, and for not even figuring out the original story.

Quinn out to be thankful every day that Brady is the nominee. If Dillard were the nominee Quinn would be toast. Even as bad a non-campaign as Quinn has been running, Brady is doing everything he can to hand the election to Quinn. Brady is jus tnot ready for prime time. Maybe he should have run for another constituional office before Guv.

I believe that the cuts should come before the taxes but Brady will have more problems if he can’t remember what he says from one week to another. PQ will hammer that stuff home as the summer/campaign heats up.

Rich: If you place the byline at the top and the bottom of the page the dead tree media might notice it. I think they just play dumb. Not many average people know about The Capitol Fax Blog, but an outlet that breaks stories is an outlet that should be attributed for breaking those stories.

- However, he can’t explain those cuts clearly so we can’t remotely tell if it’s plausible. -

Wrong, he can’t explain how that would work because its not possible. Just another example of how Brady doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t feel that Pat Quinn is incompetent, but if this campaign is going to become a race to be least incompetent, I think Brady is well on his way to proving himself the loser.

Rich, we wonder why the state is in financial ruin and why people Hate our elected official! This is why many of the Union members will refuse to do furlough days. ==

The article mentions that the bill would compute the salary decrease for furlough days using a 365-work-day year, rather than the actual work days used for merit comp employees. It doesn’t mention that the bill also provides that the legislators get to count their full salary, unreduced by the furlough days, in computing their retirement. While the legislators get this freebie, they went home without passing HB 4644, which would graciously allow merit comp to purchase the retirement pay they would otherwise lose as a result of furlough days. Just another example of how they nickel-and-dime people. So why is the Governor is “alarmed” that merit comp employees are unionizing?

I think that Brady really doesn’t remember, hence the contradictory remarks. Quinn, on the other hand, does remember but doesn’t care when he flip flops.
So which is better? which is worse? Is Cohen on the ballot yet?

Capt. Fax
Wow all that who did what when and who was first made my head thump.

We think it is safe to say most real “scoops” occur here. Big guys serve up a little slop from time to time and pretend it is news.

So let’s add this up….
1. I can’t see CaribouBarbie, opps I can.
2. Sell pension bonds. Save my campaign, don’t sell bond.
3. Cut the budget 10% — across the Board. Opps not quite across the the board — save that $1 million we send IMA.
Another reminder NoTaxBill needs to get to the FL condo ASAP. (But first the liplock with CaribouBarbie)

So, Brady supports 10% across the board, you hammer him. He backs off of it, you hammer him? Did I get that right?

And Small Town Liberal, a 10% across the board cut is POSSIBLE, it’s just a question of how much collateral damage it causes. Cuts are possible, you simply believe its the rest of the hard-working tax payers that need to make cuts to their budget to fund a state government that has consistently spent more than it had and that’s before calculating in the corruption.

We’ll call it the “spend all you want, we’ll tax more” approach to budgeting.

John,
Yes. Maybe a 10% cut across the board cut is possible. Where are you going to get the rest of the 5-7 Billion you need to “balance” the budget? Borrowing? Violate your precious constitution?
How will you deal with the rioting in the streets without money to pay for the state police? What will you do when cities and counties and school districts go broke? Raise property and local sales taxes?

Surprise surprise, John, you didn’t get what I was talking about. Of course 10% across the board cuts are possible. Simple minded, but possible. Balancing the budget with cuts alone isn’t possible. Do we want to have that debate yet again? Also, I’m not a state employee, and I don’t rely on any social services. So don’t accuse me of wanting these cuts made to budgets other than mine, because I don’t have a dog in that fight.

==a 10% across the board cut is POSSIBLE, it’s just a question of how much collateral damage it causes==

That’s a interesting position, John. It would be helpful if you defined “collateral damage”. Leaving aside the fact that a 10% across the board cut is wholly insufficient to address the deficit, it’s simply a laughable talking point unless (or until) it is supported by actual data.

Brady’s getting hammered because neither position he embraced makes sense.

Good job, Dan. Hope the well-deserved kudos you’re getting here are some small measure of consolation.

Now, if only Pat Quinn had some sort of apparatus to exploit this…some non-official organization that elected officials use during election years, with a leader or “manager” and perhaps a spokesperson. [sigh]

I don’t believe this is going to matter much because voters have to chose between a guy who doesn’t know what he is doing with a guy who doesn’t know what he is doing.

If voters hoped that Brady had a plan, then they were mistaken. However, I sense that voters don’t care if Brady doesn’t have a clue, because they’d rather have a new clueless governor with a hope he can do the job, than a current clueless governor who they have given up on.

Brady is going to be attacked by a media that is discredited by a sizable number of voters in a midterm where that sizable number make up a proportionally large group of voters.

If Brady continues as he has been, he will win in November. He hasn’t been great, but good enough to stay in front of the polling. My gut is still saying that voters are going to go with the new guy. We’re not seeing a race between Brady and a genius during good economic times, but Brady and Quinn while times suck. So the edge is still with Brady. Remarkably.

All politicians are going to have to get used to the fact that in this day of citizen journalists, bloggers, video cameras and flip phones, everything they say is out there and will be scrutinized for logic and consistency. That being said, for Illinois voters who (as described in Cassandra’s clear analysis above) conceptually tend to favor cuts before taxes, will Brady’s “semantics” kerfuffle be all that damning? In a sense, one could argue that for PQ to harp on that topic may just reinforce Brady’s campaign theme of belt tightening to those who already lean that way– and who may not trust Quinn to make cuts.

Is their any chance the increase in cigerette tax will bring in the estimated amount of revenue. I’m not a smoker but it seems we might have gone to the well to many times on taxing smokers and the projected revenue will not be there.

Of course it’s POSSIBLE, the problem is that it is also STUPID. Each dollar you cut in medicaid/medicare cuts a corresponding dollar in federal revenue. You save a dollar but lose $2 worth of services. A classic lose/lose for the Illinois taxpayer.

I wasn’t defending the merits, but there is also a case to cut state dollars even if they get a federal match. NCLB is a great example. In many districts, federal funds make up only a couple percent but the feds use that money and basically control the agenda. Think of how many days are wasted prepping for the test (not to mention the yearlong teaching to the test)? It makes up a loss of 1-2% easy. And for what? NCLB “accountability” not to the parents or the community, but to DC.

Some federal grants aren’t worth it. That said, it’s a case by case basis. Every tax dollar spent should deliver at least a dollar in value back to the taxpayers. If it doesn’t, it should be cut.

VM is right here. The thinkers seem to gather here - I know cause I keep reading their comments. Many others haven’t found the place yet and still get their info from the dead tree media and the airstream media. Anti-incumbent fever is driving the electorate and since their choice is between 2 people who either flip flop or just flop it’ll go to the party out of power. Doesn’t matter if it’s right, it just is.

I have heard Brady Speak and he may have said accross the board, but I did not take it for each individual line item. I understood him to say that he would cut 10% from IDOT for example and let the administator decide where to get the 10%. Some programs may get cut 100%, some may get a boost. I have felt he was vulnerable on two points. One, you have to have some really good and responsibile department heads to pull that off. Not easy to find 50 or so people who can really efficiently run a state agency. 2. Ultimately HE will have to make the decision on some programs to cut out in whole because of fixed obligations.

I think it is pretty much fair game for anyone to hammer Brady on his budget proposal except for Quinn and any democrat in the legislature. You guys have had absolute power for 8 years, violated the Constitution on multiple occassions by failing to pass a budget, and just walked out of town last Friday with your paychecks after failing to perform the most basic function of your job.

If you couldn’t figure it out in 8 years, I don’t think you can hammer a guy who won’t have to have a plan until February, unless the democrats violate the Constitution again by not passing a budget.

Hey, Maybe the AG will file an injunction to protect the citizens from this gross legal and ethical violation. Oh wait, “daddy told me not too.”

I also posted on this issue the yesterday. As soon as I saw the video of Brady challenging “find it on tape” I went to looking. I knew I hard heard him say it before, but couldn’t remember when/where.

Dan beat me to it and should have gotten credit for his hard work and success from the media outlets that chose to run with it (for the record, I did credit Dan and link to his post at the start of mine). And it was a friend of mine from Downstate I believe that pointed out in the comment yesterday about Bill’s statements on his hometown radio station … which Rich appropriately gave the commenter credit for.

Thanks for doing it right Rich. And nice work Dan.

And to today’s story … well those of us who know him see it for what it is: it’s just more of Bill being Bill.

And Bambenek and other apologists here … start paying attention and ecnourage your candidate to do the same. He’s not been nailed for changing positions so much as he’s being nailed for denying his previous positions. People can stomach an authentic change … but people have a hard time when politicians are dishonest, duplicitous and disingenuous.

So we are going to just keep spending $6 billion more each year than we are bringing in until we can grow our way out of it?

We can’t print more money like the feds can. We don’t have a budget borrowing mechanism in place. So we have to do things like borrow to make our pension payments (or skip them), or just pay providers later and later.

Before we grow our way out of it, two things will happen - we won’t be able to borrow any more, or providers will start collapsing en masse.

JB is right in saying the first thing we need is a deficit neutral budget. You can’t start getting out until you stop getting deeper in.

But we haven’t even stopped getting deeper, and we don’t with the proposed 2011 budget either, and here’s what has happened as we fiddled. If this Spring we did BOTH the 2 most widely talked about budget “solutions”, passed 174 and cut Brady’s 10% across the board, we would still go deeper in debt in 2011, not break even much less start to climb back out of the hole. The folly of delay.

Brady is making the same mistakes as PathiticPatQuinn flip flopin like Quinns flip flops on Roland Burris or Quinns flip flop on U of I trustees. Quinns memory of Bradys proposals mpressive I remember pat standing up with Blago telling us what a great guy blago is and how blago is the best man to govern our state I wonder if pat remembers that

I’m sure I misunderstood or it was an issue of semantics, but didn’t Bill Brady claim he would “fix the budget” in his first year during the Chicago Tonight debate/forum on January 26?
“Real Republicans balance budgets in first years.” And, he said to do it, “it will take 10% across-the-board cuts”

Congrats to Dan on following up. We need more assertive media. As for Brady, I don’t oppose him or think he’s a bad sort, as I’m right of center, but he flips about like a just caught fish on the dock. He needs to discipline himself and stick to his story, whatever it is, with courage and conviction.

Sure it’s possible, just like it’s possible the Cubs can go on a 30-game winning streak!

Sen. Brady is a clueless Republican who is incapable of doing anything but chanting the same false mantras most of his party has been hiding behind for a generation. As poorly as Pat Quinn has performed as Governor, it is clear that he can govern better in his sleep than Brady can awake.

Voters are now immune to any political spin regarding our budget. They no longer believe anyone and will simply vote out the ones in charge. After five years of paralyzed government, broken budgets and massive debts, what voters know for sure, is the fact that the guys in office are in over their heads. Consequentially, voters will be voting to put new people in charge.

In 2006, voters kept the status quo and everything got worse. In 2010, voters will vote for anyone who is not in the status quo.

==Every tax dollar spent should deliver at least a dollar in value back to the taxpayers. If it doesn’t, it should be cut.==

Does that include government spending via the tax code (tax cuts)? If you’re serious about such a proposal, you’d advocate for closing a number of popular corporate tax loopholes which most assuredly don’t generate a 1 to 1 return.

Did I misunderstand, or did I hear Brady on that clip not dispute Marin’s claim that he is opposed to requiring insurance companies to cover mammograms, calling them “insurance mandates”? Eh, I’m sure it’s all just a matter of semantics…

on that interview and the berkowitz shows he has done he still does not understand the nature of the battle he is fighting in the suburbs of chicago. Unapologetically pro-life, the karl rove comment, he’s not in rural downstate anymore.

Pat Quinn vetos bill to reform legislative scholrships because in tough economic times like these friends family and campaign contributors deserve to get a free ride to collegefrom the state reps and senators who are working so hard to balance the budget and fix the states deficit.

–You guys do the real work for most journalists that used to be done by assignment editors and reporters–

For the record, I second this statement. You’ve taken Springfield reporting to a whole new level of detail, without obvious bias. The Sun Times used to have a Springfield reporter whom I admired–Charles….can’t remember his last name. But the Sun Times only published squibs of his work, rarely full stories with analysis and subsequent followup. I know he had more to say that was edited.

–The Sun Times used to have a Springfield reporter whom I admired–Charles….can’t remember his last name. But the Sun Times only published squibs of his work, rarely full stories with analysis and subsequent followup. I know he had more to say that was edited.–

It’s like re-occurring comedy episodes from the old SNL Not Ready For Prime Time Players. They just need to go dark over there in Bradyville for a while, take a deep breath, figure out who’s in charge, figure out the politics, figure out the needed strategy, figure out the issues, try to remember who said what & when they said it before they lose any more credibility & followers. A Brady team meeting is probably looking more like the E-Trade commercial when they’re trying to figure out why they’re losing customers & ground but to no avail. Surely they can see it’s becoming a joke & going south by many accounts. There will come a point when they can’t recover for a variety of reasons. Brady will probably win narrowly in November if he changes his direction only because the state is deep in the tank & those there now at the state’s helm can’t seem to figure it out & it’s getting worse.